Android 16 will fight scammers by blocking certain features during phone calls (Update: Demo)

Replace, February 14, 2025 (04:41 PM ET): After just a little extra investigation, we’ve found that Google’s new in-call anti-scammer protections are already dwell in Android 16 Beta 2. You may see them in motion for your self on this video demonstration we’ve put collectively:

Authentic article, February 14, 2025 (05:00 AM ET): There’s all kinds of phone scams that you just want to pay attention to, and with the arrival of AI speech instruments, these scams will solely turn out to be extra convincing. Scammers will make use of all kinds of psychological tips to get you to ship them cash or give them entry to your on-line accounts, and sadly, many individuals fall sufferer to those scams every single day. To fight these scammers, Google is engaged on a brand new safety characteristic for Android 16 that blocks you from altering certain delicate settings during phone calls. This will hopefully make it tougher for scammers to succeed and make folks suppose twice earlier than putting in or enabling malicious software program.

When a phone scammer finds a possible sufferer, they search for methods they will get the sufferer to ship them cash or private information. Typically, this entails tricking them into putting in malware after which granting it entry to delicate permissions like accessibility entry. The typical particular person in all probability doesn’t know the best way to sideload apps on Android, although, which is why the scammer stays on the road to information them by the method.

That is the place Android 16’s new safety characteristic will step in. Android 16 will detect when a phone name is energetic after which forestall you from enabling the sideloading permission. That is based on strings I found whereas digging by Android 16 Beta 2:

The sideloading permission, which permits apps to put in different apps, is disabled by default for safety causes, as a number of malicious software program is distributed exterior of official app shops. It must be explicitly enabled by going to Settings > Apps > Particular app entry > Set up unknown apps. Customers with Superior Safety Mode enabled can’t toggle this permission exactly due to the safety dangers.

Though this characteristic blocks sideloading during calls, scammers may instruct victims to hold up, sideload the app, and name again. First, this added step introduces friction, which might disrupt the scammer’s stream and trigger the sufferer to turn out to be suspicious. Crucially, the dialog displayed once you try to allow the sideloading permission warns that scammers usually request this motion during calls, and it advises warning if being guided by an unknown caller. This warning may make some folks rethink the caller’s legitimacy and forestall them from changing into victims.

What if the sideloading permission is already enabled, or worse, the scammer’s app is on the Google Play Retailer? Android 16 additionally blocks the enabling of certain delicate permissions, akin to accessibility entry, during energetic phone calls. Granting accessibility entry permits an app to learn the display screen and carry out actions in your behalf—a strong mixture that might give malicious software program full management of your system. This added layer of safety will hopefully scale back the variety of profitable phone scams.

These new safety features are already dwell in Android 16 Beta 2, and will presumably nonetheless be current for the general public launch of Android 16 later this 12 months. They construct upon the Enhanced Affirmation Mode characteristic, launched in Android 15, that makes it tougher for sideloaded apps to get entry to delicate permissions.